Sound Off for Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013

On Affordable Care Act: I agree 100 percent with the caller in Sunday's Gazette. It is not affordable. My premium went up monthly from $200 to over $500, and I cannot afford that. I don't need all the extra things that are in their plans. It's just ridiculous; people need to call their congressman or senator.On downtown parking: The consultant that did the parking survey didn't talk to the people involved. I know. I have a business downtown, and half the time I cannot find parking because it's two- hour parking, not all-day parking. My clients have to drop someone off and come back later. -- I drove up and down Main Street and Milwaukee Street, and the answer is angled parking. We've had it before, and we can have it again. Now, please pay me megabucks for my study.On Gazette: Regarding last Sunday's Our Views, loyal reader Fred had a free announcement in The Gazette when he was born. The same with his wedding and his son's birth. However, when loyal reader Fred dies, The Gazette will charge loyal reader Fred's family a heck of a lot of money for his obituary.On GOP: Why are Republicans constantly hurting America by not working with our president? Why don't they want Americans to have a job and to be covered by health care and have their IRAs grow and become prosperous? They seem to be following some hidden agenda rather than working for us peopleOn mine: An article Tuesday reported that environmentalists and tree-huggers found asbestos fibers in a rock where the proposed iron mine will open in Ashland County. Now, the tree-huggers want the mine shut down. If this is the case, the DNR should quarantine the area and not let anyone in except DNR officials dressed in hazmat clothing because if anyone else enters, they might get a speck of dust on their shoes.On debt limit: When President Obama was a senator, he said it was unpatriotic to be raising the debt limit, but I guess now that he has anointed himself as the king of the United States, it's a good thing to do.On Janesville schools: It's too bad it isn't as easy to shut down the Janesville superintendent of schools and the school board as it is to shut down the federal government. Stand up Janesville; very few want the China connection. -- I think the actions of the school board and administration are a disgrace to the citizens of Janesville. They are pandering to a few Chinese students, which we really don't need, but they've done nothing to do the contract for the teachers.-- This has to do with Superintendent Schulte and her comment about rewarding the teachers with bonus money because the report cards were better than usual. I thought this was what we already have been paying them for, plus their benefits, to do this job. -- Thursday morning headline says, “Money for good grades.” Money for good grades? You've got to be kidding me. I thought that was their job to teach children.-- It is time to put a stop to Karen Schulte and her ambitious and fiscally irresponsible ideas of incentivizing school employees and administrators for doing the job they were hired to do. You are making a lot of people very angry over these proposals. It seems like this is an attempt to recover the health and pension employee contribution loss from last year.On government shutdown: I think President Obama is trying to inflict the most pain on citizens by shutting down things like monuments, memorials, parks and services for our dead troops. Instead, we should shut down the White House chef, the cleaning services for Obama's personal residence and also the congressional barber shop, the gym and the bank. When Congress feels the heat, I think we'll have a swift resolution to this stalemate.-- The one group of people who demand that we stop borrowing and spending $1 trillion more than we bring in every year and piling that debt on our children and grandchildren is the group that's said to be crazy and irresponsible. It's like we live in the twilight zone. The Democratic Party has to keep borrowing and spending money so they can give free stuff to people in exchange for votes, and our children and grandchildren can be damned.On Pitts: I just read Leonard Pitts' “Held hostage” in the Oct. 9 paper. Get rid of him. He's the dumbest thing we've got in the paper.On leaves: I wish that people would have to bag their leaves themselves. I feel it's very unsafe hazard to put them the street. I'm waiting for a little child or somebody to get run over from hiding in the leaves. Plus, cars can start on fire, and leaves are slippery when they're wet, and the leaves also cause problems then they go down the sewers.On Gov. Walker: Watching all these pro-government Walker ads, I must admit that he has kept his campaign promises. Unfortunately, they have been kept to the people who funded his election, not to the citizens of the state of Wisconsin.On park flowers: Just drove by Kiwanis Park and saw the flowers that are on the corner there. Very beautiful. Nice job, Kiwanis. It adds a nice touch to the city.